1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a fuel cell system and a performance improvement method of the fuel cell system.
2. Description of Related Art
A fuel cell system is known which is configured to perform an activation process of temporarily reducing a cathode electric potential of at least one single fuel cell of the fuel cell system to a target electric potential for a duration time so as to improve the performance of an electrode catalyst in the single fuel cell (for example, refer to Published Japanese Translation of PCT application No. 2003-536232 (JP-A-2003-536232)).
When an electrode catalyst of a cathode of a single fuel cell is used, an oxide film is formed on a surface of the electrode catalyst, which causes deterioration in performance of the electrode catalyst. In the above-described activation process, by temporarily reducing a cathode electric potential in the single fuel cell, the electrode catalyst is reduced, the oxide film covering the electrode catalyst is removed, and the deteriorated performance of the electrode catalyst is improved. As a result, the performance of the single fuel cell can be improved.